“Fuck around and find out.” - Widespread old folk saying.

It was common knowledge in the world that the Six Deities were real. They might be worshiped under different names depending on the region, often with varying imagery as well, and some regions might only worship a few to the exclusion of the others, but the Six were a constant throughout the world. Life, Death, Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth were the affinities directly governed by the Deities and largely considered to represent them.

Vitalis of Life, Tohrmut of Death, Igunacio of Fire, Remidis of Water, Aistrofuri of Wind, and Pesca or Earth were the most “accepted” names of the Six Deities.

All legends of the Deities – regardless of the source or the culture they came from – stated that the Deities were primarily watchers and observers. They generally would not intervene with the mortal realm, barring exceptional circumstances which forced their hand. Circumstances that typically involved some mortals attempting to encroach upon the territory of the Divine.

In such cases, Divine Retribution tended to arrive swiftly and mercilessly. There were many distant legends that had only survived as vague retellings, from times beyond recorded history, tales that only survived as they had been passed down from mouth to mouth over the generations. Within written history itself, however, the incident infamously known as Igunacio’s Wrath was one that every scholar of history – and every dwarf in existence – would know of.

Said incident happened when Ulfred Stonehammer, the Last King Down Under, attempted to ensnare Igunacio, the Deity of Fire, for purposes that had long been forgotten. Popular legend had the Last King wanting to use the Deity to fuel the greatest forge complex in dwarven history, while yet other retellings mentioned a desire to create the greatest masterpiece known to history by using said Deity’s flames for the forging.

Whatever the actual reason was, the incident resulted in the enraged Deity of Fire laying waste to the dwarven capital of the time in their wrath. What was once a prosperous underground city of nearly a hundred thousand was reduced to caverns full of ash and cinder, with a portion of those inhabitants – including the Last King Down Under himself – reduced to the very ash that covered the city’s remains.

The incident had passed on to history in most people’s minds, but the incident where the remnants of the underground city was further annihilated by a Void Archmage’s last desperate attempt just a century or so ago brought it back to people’s awareness. Some even claimed that the second annihilation was a warning sign from the Deities not to repeat such folly.

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While similar incidents were few and far between, they happened with enough regularity throughout the course of history that a conclusion could be drawn about them. The Deities might be watchers and observers for the most part, but they were not above direct intervention when they deemed it needed, though it generally took quite a bit to cause one of them to do so.

Apparently the ritual Ver’dun Slovak did crossed that line, given what Aideen witnessed before her eyes that day.

Everything – and everyone – came to a halt as the otherworldly voice echoed all around them. The voice was neutral, neither male nor female. It was loud and clear, yet not deafening to the ear. It sounded close and distant at the same time, as if the source came from everywhere all at once. It was the first time Aideen felt such a phenomenon in her long life, and even if she could move, she would probably be too baffled to do so.

Above them, in the sky over the palace, they saw how a massive, humanoid figure seemed to coalesce into existence. Aideen could sense Life mana from the forming figure, of a far greater intensity than what she could feel on the mad king. They were not even close. The difference between their mana was easily in orders of magnitude, and not just one.

Yet compared to the mad king’s mana, where the life affinity felt as if they had been forced and perverted into something unnatural, something that went against the very purpose of Life itself, the mana Aideen could feel from the coalescing figure was pure, for the lack of a better word.

The figure’s mana was Life itself, in all its natural glory, unlike the pale imitation forcibly put into use by the mad king. Aideen was not a particularly religious individual, her faith in the Deities more perfunctory than anything. She offered them respect, but little in terms of actual worship, but when she looked at the glowing figure formed out of pure mana above the palace, even she could tell that she was faced with one of those Deities in the flesh.

What else could possess such power in this world? It was clearly a power that was far beyond the ken of mortals, the sort that made Grandpa Aarin look small in comparison.

Aideen saw how the figure – or rather, Vitalis, the Deity of Life, or at least a manifestation of hers – reached down with one hand and plucked the mad king from where he stood over her. She saw everything with her own eyes, but couldn’t move or do anything to interfere. She felt that likely nobody around would have been able to do anything in the presence of the Deity.

“Not only have you perverted the meaning of Life, using it to bring death to many thousands, but you DARE claim for it to be our blessing? Quite a bold claim to make, o mortal king,” they heard the Deity say to the mad king in her grasp. “You sacrificed the lives of many thousands of innocents, even your own family, as well as those loyal to you, for what? Immortality, was it? Eternal life, was that what you wished for?”

“A swift death is far too good a punishment for one such as you. It would be utterly unfair for those who lost their lives because of you if you were to meet your end so swiftly,” the Deity continued. “Therefore, I shall grant you your desire, yet you shall learn that one should be wary of what they wished for.”